by Leigh Goessl

Created on: September 14, 2008   Last Updated: February 12, 2009

Have you ever done a spring cleanup and discovered you have many possessions you no longer use or need? If you are like most people you probably have a lot of items scattered about the house just taking up space.

Selling off these items is a great way to shed those items you no longer have use for and you can make some extra cash in the process. Traditionally if you wanted to sell something you had to hold a garage sale in order to clean out and make more room in the home, but technology has added an interesting dimension to buying and selling.

eBay is one of the innovative ways you can use to sell off your no longer needed possessions you've accumulated over the years. The website has grown significantly since its inception in the mid-1990s and continues to expand as more and more people explore new ways sell off household goods.

Whether you decide to sell on eBay or hold a garage sale, each method of selling has its advantages and disadvantages. When comparing eBay and garage sales it is interesting to note the benefits and drawbacks when examining the differences between the two.

The way selling on eBay works is you list your item(s) on the eBay website and people bid for a specified length of time. Once the bidding time frame is over, you'll hopefully have a buyer. Selling on ebay is easy, convenient and best of all there is no setting up or dismantling your sale.

A signficant advantage is if you place an item up for sale on eBay you have a much larger audience who will be able to view your item and this may generate more interest in a potential sale. If your goal is to make more money, using eBay is a good way to sell. If it is an item in high demand, this can drive up your asking price and you'll make more money. Consequently at a garage sale chances are you'll be haggled down to a lower price than you'd hoped to receive.

The timeliness of payments is also a bit different. When you make a sale on eBay you may have a delay in receiving payment because you have to either wait for a check or to be able to withdraw funds from your PayPal account; at your garage sale you'll receive immediate cash in exchange for your item.

For the eBay sale you have to take the time to package up and mail the item to your buyer whereas at your garage sale your buyer arranges transport and you have immediate disposal of the item. If you are in a rush to sell because your goal is to get rid of items quick, a priced to sell garage sale may be the way to go.

Advertising is an important part of selling. Arranging your garage sale is a lot of work, you have to hang signs, place an ad, set up and clean up afterwards. Putting together a yard sale is pretty time consuming, but selling on eBay requires a lot less physical work because you place your item up and set the parameters and wait for the bids to come in. If you have many items, this can be time consuming, but you can do this at your leisure as opposed to a garage sale where you have to have everything ready to be sold at once.

Both techniques of selling are great ways to shed off those older possessions and each has its good and bad points. Today it ultimately comes down to being a matter of preference, but the beauty of it is you have multiple options to sell off those no-longer needed or wanted possessions.

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